An excellent and thought-provoking sci-fi horror movie

Rating: Null/10 (3 June 2003)

28 Days Later is an adaptation of Alex Garland's sci-fi/horror novel (yes, this is the same team that brought you The Beach). This has to be one of the most riveting and thought-provoking movies I've seen all year.
It is the story of Jim (played by little-known actor Cillian Murphy), who wakes from a coma in hospital to find a Britain in ruins, destroyed by a virulent plague called 'Rage' that broke out just 28 days earlier. The virus has wiped out almost all of Britain's population, while the zombie-like 'infected' stalk the streets in search of new victims to claim to the disease.
The entire film is shot in nicely gritty camcorder-style, which makes it look somewhat like a documentary and is very effective. The zombies are excellently captured in fast-frame motion. There are several REAL frights, but what I enjoyed most was how unexpected the whole movie was - where other movies might give you post-apocalyptic punkish idealism, 28 Days Later tells a story of survival of the spirit; where others may give you frenzied love scenes to rake in adolescent viewers, the rising sexual tension between Jim and fellow survivor Selena (Naomie Harris) in the face of all this madness provides a very human backdrop to the film.
The acting is spot-on throughout the movie, with a great turn by Christopher Eccleston (I won't spoil it by telling you who he plays).
Some images in the movie are intensely disturbing: the empty streets of London and surroundings (remember the empty New York scene in The Devil's Advocate?), an infected priest attacking Jim on a church altar, and Jim's disposing of an infected child with a baseball bat. The really hardcore material though, comes during the final third of the movie, when you realize that salvation is not at all what it seems.
28 Days Later succeeds where The Matrix Reloaded - bloated with style and lacking substance - failed. Even if you're not into sci-fi, I urge you to watch this.